The WG1 Expert Meeting on ‘Frontiers in attosecond theory: from atoms to molecules to solids’’ has been approved by the COST Management Committee. The workshop will take place in Han-sur-Lesse (The Ardennes, Belgium) on April 4-8, 2016, at the Domain des Masures.
The chair of the organizing committee is Prof. Bernard Piraux.

The meeting will cover the following topics:
– hole dynamics in inner/valence shells of atoms/molecules
– ultrafast response to electron removal in solids
– ultrafast dynamics in chiral systems
– theoretical methods for ultrafast dynamics

Invited speakers:
Vitali Averbukh (Imperial College, London);  Jamal Berakdar (Martin-Luether University, Halle), Alexander Galstyan (University Louvain la Neuve), Bernard Pons (CELIA, Bordeaux), Armin Scrinzi (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich).

Registration:
Due to the capacity of the venue, the workshop will be limited to 30 participants. The total cost per person is 309 €, and it includes all meals and accommodation for 5 days.
If you plan to attend the workshop, please fill out this form. The deadline for registration is January 29, 2016. Once the list of participants will be known, you will receive the confirmation of your registration as well as more information about the organization of the workshop

The abstract submission deadline  is January 29.
Please send one page abstract to olga.smirnova@mbi-berlin.de  and Bernard.Piraux@uclouvain.be.
Please use the following subject line: Ardennes_abstract_name
and indicate in your email the type of the contribution you wish to present: oral or poster.

Abstracts will be reviewed by the program committee, which includes:
Prof. Henri Bachau (CELIA Bordeaux), Prof. Piero Decleva (Università di Trieste),  Prof. Lars Madsen (Aarhus University), Prof. Fernando Martin (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid).

Registration for the Ultrafast X-Ray Summer School 2016 is now open. UXSS 2016 will take place during June 12-16 at the PULSE institute at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. UXSS 2016 is organized in collaboration with the Center for Free Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY in Hamburg, Germany. The summer school is intended to give a comprehensive introduction to the field of ultrafast x-ray science and free electron lasers. The program, directed towards graduate students and post-docs, is highly interdisciplinary and focuses on the latest developments and opportunities in the field. A limited amount of travel support is available. Students interested to apply are requested to send a brief one-page statement describing their background and research interests. For more information visit:

https://ultrafast.stanford.edu/uxss-2016

The 2nd meeting of XLIC WG1 “Ultrafast electron dynamics in molecules” will take place on August 29-30, at the University of Edinburgh. The organizer of the COST WG1 meeting is Dr. Olga Smirnova. The local organizer of the COST WG1 meeting is Dr. Adam Kirrander.
The place for the meeting also allows the COST members to  take advantage of the very interesting Faraday Discussions, ‘Ultrafast imaging of photochemical dynamics’ , which will also take place in Edinburgh on August 31-Sept 2, see http://www.rsc.org/ConferencesAndEvents/RSCConferences/FD/Photodynamics-FD2016/index.asp.
If you have not yet taken notice of this Faraday Discussion, please note  that the deadline for the Faraday Discussions abstract (poster) submission is  June 20.

ACCOMODATION

We have reserved 100 rooms on campus, at the student dorms, for the duration of both the COST and the Faraday Discussions meetings.
To reserve accommodation during the meeting please use the link below: http://www.epay.ed.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=24&catid=17&prodid=2265&searchresults=1
On the booking site, if you click on the Package Option tab, you’ll see two room booking options, one for 3 nights at £240 – this is in a nicer room with ensuite bathroom.
This option 2 is a booking for 5 nights (covering both the XLIC and the FD), in less attractive but more affordable rooms with shared bathroom (approx 4-5 rooms per bathroom).
The deadline for room booking is June 1.
Alternative/additional options for  accommodation  for five days covering both meetings  are offered by the FD meeting booking system: http://www.epay.ed.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=24&catid=17&prodid=2268&searchresults=1
You can find more options via hotel booking service appointed  for the FD :    http://www.ellis-salsby.co.uk/forthcoming-events/ultrafast-imaging-of-photochemical-dynamics-faraday-discussion.html

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Abstract submission for the WG1 meeting is now open. Submission deadline is June 20.
7 hot topic talks will be selected from all submitted abstracts.
Please send abstracts to: olga.smirnova@mbi-berlin.de and Adam.Kirrander@ed.ac.uk and use the subject line: Edinburgh COST WG1 abstract.
Abstract  (poster) submission deadline for the Faraday discussion is June 20.

BRIEF WG1 MEETING PROGRAMME
NEW! Final programme can be downloaded here: 2ndWG1meeting-program

Session 1: “Ultrafast Non-adiabatic dynamics, Surface hopping, solvent effects”.
Discussion leader: V. Engel.
Invited speakers: M. Barbatti, B. Lasorne, F. Santoro
Session 2: “Synchrotrons, ultrafast optical and X-ray absorption spectroscopies”
Discussion leader: V. Averbukh
Invited speakers:  O. Travnikova, M.A. Hervé du Penhoat, C. Milne
Session 3: “Time-resolved cluster dynamics”
Discussion leader: T. Fennel
Invited speakers: D. Rolles, M. Krikunova, U. Saalman
Session 4: “Imaging and control of molecular dynamics”
Discussion leader: R. Moshammer
Invited speakers: J. Kuepper, R. Forbes, M. Richter, J. Feist
Session 5: “Multielectron dynamics in external fields: advances in theory”
Discussion leader: E. Suraud
Invited speakers: L. Madsen, A. Scrinzi, H. Bachau, S. Patchkovskii
Session 6: “New trends in attosecond spectroscopy”
Discussion leader: M. Ivanov
Invited speakers: J. Mauritsson, A. Brown, M. Dahlström, F. Lepine

NEW! PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Travel from Edinburgh airport (in order of convenience)
TAXI: Follow signs in the terminal, the taxi rank is located at the bottom of the building across from the terminal. A taxi from the airport to a city centre location should cost about £25-£30 (credit cards are normally accepted, but check with driver).
BUS: Airport busses to the city centre (bus no. 100) are frequent and depart from outside the terminal building. The bus terminates at Waverley Train Station, in the centre of Edinburgh, with a taxi rank close by for onwards travel. A return ticket is £7.50.
TRAM: One can also travel from the airport to the city centre by tram. The trams depart from a station outside the terminal. Make sure to get off at the right stop (for most, this will be the stop closest to Waverly Train Station i.e. St Andrews Square). Note that the tram is slower than the bus. A return ticket is £8.50.

Travel to Pollock Halls, for those who booked the conference accommodation
The easiest way to travel to Pollock Halls is to take the taxi directly from the airport to Pollock Halls. A cheaper alternative is to take an airport bus (see above) to the final stop at Waverley Train Station and then take a taxi to Pollock Halls for approx. £5 (in addition to the airport bus fare).
Please report at the reception at Pollock Halls (open 24/7). The address of the reception is: 18 Holyrood Park Road, EH16 5AY, Edinburgh (note that google maps for some reason places the location marker inside the campus area, when in fact the reception is located near the entrance).

Conference venue
The conference takes place in Lecture Theatre T250 in the Joseph Black Building at the King’s Buildings Campus of University of Edinburgh (see http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/maps for campus maps). A registration desk inside the entrance of the Joseph Black Building will be open from 08.20 every morning. The address is:
School of Chemistry
Joseph Black Building
King’s Buildings Campus
University of Edinburgh
David Brewster Road
EH9 3FJ Edinburgh
(GOOGLE MAPS: https://goo.gl/maps/GEuDbJod59T2)
For those staying at Pollock Halls, it is a 9 minute taxi ride (approx. £6) or a 26 minute walk (see e.g. Google Maps for directions).

OTHER

Last but not least, the meeting will occur at the time of the world-famous Edinburgh Theater Festival https://www.edfringe.com/, which many of you might get a chance to enjoy.

REGISTRATION

Please, complete the form below to register. The registration deadline is June 5.

The International school on “The Frontiers of Attosecond and Ultrafast X-ray Science” will be held from 19th to 28th March 2017 in Erice, Sicily, Italy.

The primary objective of this new school is to educate the next generation of scientists who will impact the future of attosecond and ultrafast x-ray science. We anticipate that the school will meet on a regular basis every two years and become a foundation for the ultrafast community. Consequently, the main topics of the course are the following: (i) attosecond science and technology, devoted to the generation and application of attosecond pulses to the investigation of electronic dynamics in atoms, molecules, nanostructures and condensed phases; (ii) fundamentals, methods and applications of free electron lasers, synchrotron radiation, ion collisions in atomic and molecular science. Lectures will cover current developments in theory and experiments but are also intended to give the basics of the field.

Please note that, PhD students and post-docs willing to attend the school can apply for scholarships (deadline 30 January 2017). For more details see: http://www.erice-attosecond.it/registration

The school co-organised by XLIC COST Action and sponsored by Politecnico di Milano, Italian Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, Sicilian Regional Parliament, ELI-ALPS and Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture.

The organizers,

Louis Di Mauro, Alicja Domaracka, Mauro Nisoli and  Sergio Martellucci